SETS NIGHTLY AT 7:30 & 9:30
FRI & SAT, THIRD SET AT 11:30
SETS NIGHTLY AT 7:30 & 9:30
FRI & SAT, THIRD SET AT 11:30
Friday - Sunday April 1 - 3
SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE: THE MUSIC OF STEVIE WONDER
Now entering its eighth year of creative adventure, the SFJAZZ Collective is an all-star ensemble comprising eight of the finest performer/composers at work in jazz today. Each year, the Collective performs an entirely new list of compositions by a modern jazz master along with new pieces by its members, honoring the music’s recent history while affirming the group’s commitment to jazz as a living, ever–relevant art form. After exploring the work of jazz giants like Ornette Coleman (2004), Thelonious Monk (2007), and Horace Silver (2010), the SFJAZZ Collective now takes on the songs of pop music icon Stevie Wonder for its spring 2011 tour. While Wonder represents a departure from previous, his work has had a profound impact on musicians in diverse genres and on the whole of American culture. Maybe you’ve heard “Superstition,” “Sir Duke,” and “Blame It On The Sun” before – but you’ve never heard them arranged and played like this!
Tickets: $30 - PURCHASE NOW
Monday April 4
MINGUS ORCHESTRA
Our “Mingus Mondays” residency continues this month with two exciting sets of music by the Mingus Orchestra. The group will bring its singular blend of jazz and “non – jazz” instruments (oboe, French horn) to bear on some of Charles Mingus’ most classically–influenced compositions.
Tickets: $25 - PURCHASE NOW
Tuesday - Wednesday April 5 - 6
JEREMY PELT QUINTET
Jeremy Pelt, a DownBeat “Rising Star” on trumpet for five years, “has kept together his working band for some three years now,” noted Jeff Krow in a glowing online review of Pelt’s latest CD, The Talented Mr. Pelt. “They just keep on getting tighter in their interplay. They swing hard, and they swagger in their arrangements. Pelt is at the peak of his powers with the power and range of Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard in their seminal years.” This week, the spotlight is on the Jeremy Pelt Quintet and the music of The Talented Mr. Pelt – don’t miss it!
Tickets: $20 - PURCHASE NOW
Thursday - Sunday April 7 - 10
RUSSELL MALONE TRIO [7:30pm & 9:30pm Only]
A significant presence on the New York scene for more than two decades, guitarist Russell Malone is widely acclaimed for his “exceptional harmonic ingenuity and finesse” (The Washington Post). Following Volumes One and Two of Live At Jazz Standard, Russell’s latest MaxJazz CD is the studio set Triple Play. It features such infectious, bluesy originals as “Tail Feathers” and “Butch and Butch” alongside his lyrical treatment of “Unchained Melody.” The music of Russell Malone, says The Village Voice, is “mainstream jazz at its most inventive. The guitarist inevitably makes the straight and narrow seem bent and wide, all while swinging viciously.”
Tickets: $25/$30 Friday & Saturday - PURCHASE NOW
Monday April 11
MINGUS BIG BAND
Congratulations once again to the Mingus Big Band, winners of the 2011 Grammy Award for Live at Jazz Standard as Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. Grammy voters heard “an almost flawless slice of some of Mingus’s finest work” (PopMatters.com) – as will those listeners who join us tonight for two explosive sets by the boldest big band in the business!
Tickets: $25 - PURCHASE NOW
Tuesday - Wednesday April 12 - 13
BEN ALLISON BAND *Co-presented with the Saratoga Jazz Festival
Bassist/composer Ben Allison is one of a few band leaders working in jazz today who has developed his own instantly identifiable sound. Known for his inspired arrangements, inventive grooves and hummable melodies, Ben draws from the jazz tradition and a range of influences from rock and folk to classical and world music, and seamlessly blends them into a cinematic, cohesive whole. With his 10th release Action-Refraction, Ben has turned his ear towards the music of some of his favorite artists, creating an inspired, atmospheric - and at times, art-rock - mixtape featuring the music of PJ Harvey, Donny Hathaway, Thelonious Monk, Neil Young, Samuel Barber and Roger Nichols.
Click here to listen to Ben's new album Action-Refraction on NPR's website.
Tickets: $20 - PURCHASE NOW
Thursday - Sunday April 14 - 17
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE QUINTET
Jazz Standard and Blue Note Records celebrate the April 5 release of When The Heart Emerges Glistening – the tour de force Blue Note label debut of trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire. The 12–song disc includes 10 of the leader’s original tunes and stellar performances by his close–knit working quintet. The Los Angeles Times named Ambrose Akinmusire one of its 2011 “Faces to Watch,” and offered this description of a 2010 L.A. performance: “Akinmusire and his band demonstrated a remarkably fluid, adventurous interplay and patiently imaginative way with melody that sounded as steeped in the music's history as it was hard–wired with the sound of something new. With a chameleonic tone that can sigh, flutter or soar, Akinmusire sounds less like a rising star than one that was already at great heights and just waiting to be discovered.”
Tickets: $25/$30 Friday & Saturday - PURCHASE NOW
Monday April 18
MINGUS ORCHESTRA
With its unique blend of jazz and classical instrumentation, “the ten–piece Mingus Orchestra has all the depth and muscle needed to render the master bassist–composer’s tempestuous fantasias.” (Time Out New York)
Tickets: $25 - PURCHASE NOW
Tuesday April 19
MALIKA ZARRA
New York-based Moroccan singer, composer, and producer Malika Zarra is a musical enchantress who was called “Morocco's Jazz Jewel” by CNN International. Malika’s velvety, sinuous mezzo-soprano voice demonstrates a rare ability to communicate both powerful and subtle ideas and feelings in Berber, Moroccan Arabic, French and English and has been adored at nightclubs and festivals the world over. This appearance at Jazz Standard is a special one, celebrating the release of her newest CD, Berber Taxi, on the Motéma Music label.
Tickets: $20 - PURCHASE NOW
Wednesday - Sunday April 20 - 24
IMPULSE! NIGHTs
This week, Jazz Standard heralds the 50th anniversary of Impulse! Records – one of the most important label names in jazz history – with a series of dynamic live performances of classic Impulse! studio albums. First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection, slated to be reissued as a box set, celebrates the Impulse! Records founder Creed Taylor. Taylor (who turns 82 this year) made an indelible mark in jazz history by signing John Coltrane in 1961 and producing this first series of now-legendary studio recordings for the label.
Wednesday April 20
IMPULSE! NIGHTS: JOHN COLTRANE – AFRICA/BRASS featuring DAVE LIEBMAN & RAVI COLTRANE with Phil Markowitz, Cecil McBee and Billy HART
The sessions that produced Africa/Brass featured the John Coltrane Quartet with additional brass and reeds arranged and conducted by Eric Dolphy. In his liner notes to the album’s 1995 reissue, David A. Wild wrote: “As a snapshot of where Coltrane’s art stood in the spring of 1961, as an example of his ability to combine disparate elements into a strikingly unified whole, as a road marker pointing towards the future, Africa/Brass remains one of the most powerful and compelling examples of the art of John Coltrane.” Two prime exponents of the Coltrane legacy (now in it’s 85th year!), Ravi Coltrane and Dave Liebman, along with a top–shelf rhythm section, will interpret this major work in a quintet setting.
Tickets: $35 - PURCHASE NOW
Thursday April 21
IMPULSE! NIGHTS: OLIVER NELSON – THE BLUES AND THE ABSTRACT TRUTH
Featuring ROY HARGROVE - DAVID SANCHEZ - GEORGE CABLES - DWAYNE BURNO - GREGORY HUTCHINSON
In his liner notes for The Blues and the Abstract Truth, saxophonist and composer Oliver Nelson described a period of intense soul–searching that began with his arrival on the New York scene in March 1959: “But…it was not until this LP was recorded on Thursday, the 23rd of February, 1961, that I finally had broken through and realized that I would have to be true to myself, to play and write what I think is vital, and most of all, to find my own personality and identity.” Leading a studio group that included Bill Evans, Eric Dolphy, and Freddie Hubbard, Oliver Nelson’s The Blues and the Abstract Truth “is his triumph as a musician for the aspects of not only defining the sound of an era with his all–time classic ‘Stolen Moments,’ but on this recording, assembling one of the most potent modern jazz sextets ever.” (Michael G. Nastos, AllMusic.com) Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Roy Hargrove curates and leads an exceptional ensemble to reinterpret Oliver Nelson’s masterpiece for the 21st century.
Tickets: $35 - PURCHASE NOW
Friday April 22
IMPULSE! NIGHTS: GIL EVANS – OUT OF THE COOL
Curated by Ryan Truesdell
With Out Of The Cool, Gil Evans applied to his own project the uncanny musical skills he’d brought to three earlier collaborations with Miles Davis: Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain. For his 1961 date, the composer/arranger led an augmented studio version of the Gil Evans Orchestra that made its NYC debut at the Jazz Gallery in late 1960; it included trumpeter Johnny Coles, bassist Ron Carter, and drummers Charlie Persip and Elvin Jones. “Drawing from such distinctive composers as Kurt Weill, John Benson Brooks, George Russell and himself, Evans fashioned a rich, delicate tapestry of sound that becomes a work unto itself.” (Michael Cuscuna, from the liner notes to the 1996 CD reissue) Conductor, composer and curator Ryan Truesdell has been working on an extensive project with the Evans family for a future ArtistShare release to unearth some of the lesser-known music of Gil Evans, and has assembled a superb group to bring Out of the Cool to shimmering light for one night only!
Tickets: $35 - PURCHASE NOW
Saturday April 23
IMPULSE! NIGHTS: KAI WINDING & J.J. JOHNSON – THE GREAT KAI AND J.J. + THE INCREDIBLE KAI WINDING TROMBONE Curated by Robin Eubanks
The group formed by Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson made its Birdland debut in 1954 and played one of the best–received sets at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. The band broke up soon after, but in 1960 the two trombone masters reunited to record the very first Impulse! album, The Great Kai And J.J., released in early 1961. The tunes ranged from “Blue Monk” to Hollywood (“Theme From Picnic”), and the rhythm section included pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Roy Haynes. Winding led a four–trombone septet on The Incredible Kai Winding Trombone, also issued in 1961. Tonight’s powerhouse project is curated and led by Grammy Award-winning trombonist Robin Eubanks.
Tickets: $35 - PURCHASE NOW
Sunday April 24
IMPULSE! NIGHTS: RAY CHARLES – GENIUS + SOUL = JAZZ Curated by Henry Butler
Genius + Soul = Jazz placed Ray Charles at the head of the Count Basie Orchestra with cornetist Thad Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and saxophonists Billy Mitchell and Frank Wess all on board for the date. Charles played Hammond B-3 organ on this mostly–instrumental set, vocalizing only on two blues numbers, “I’ve Got News for You” and “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town.” Ray’s Latin–soul rendition of “One Mint Julep” (arranged by Quincy Jones) reached Number One R&B/Number Eight Pop – the biggest hit single ever to bear the Impulse! logo. Closing out the incredible 5-night run of Impulse! music, the great blues and jazz pianist/vocalist from New Orleans, Henry Butler, will bring down the house with 2 sets of rousing music celebrating “Brother Ray!”
Tickets: $35 - PURCHASE NOW
Monday April 25
MINGUS BIG BAND
The spirit of the man lives on in his music, and so Nat Hentoff’s words from nearly a half–century ago still ring today: “A remarkable element in Mingus’ influence on his sidemen is his capacity to generate and sustain a fierce collective swing which is at the same time both loose and what I can best describe as spontaneously exclamatory. The seeming paradox of Mingus is that so forceful a personality can create situations which so irresistibly propel his sidemen to be so fully themselves.” (From the liner notes to the 1963 Impulse! LP Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus)
Tickets: $25 - PURCHASE NOW
Tuesday April 26
BERKLEE GREG OSBY SEXTET
Over the course of his multi–faceted career, the saxophonist Greg Osby has forged a formidable reputation as an instrumentalist, composer, entrepreneur, and recording artist. But he’s also a leading music educator who holds a professorship in the Ensembles Department of Berklee College of Music. Tonight, Jazz Standard welcomes the professor and a hand–picked group comprised of some of the school’s most promising student players; past performances have featured Berklee alumni like Esperanza Spalding, Julian Lage, and Kendrick Scott. “You can practice by yourself all you want,” says Greg Osby, “but unless you're playing with and responding to another musician and contributing to a group, you don't really know what your role is. It's really the last stage, but the most important stage, of a person's education.”
Tickets: $20 - PURCHASE NOW
Wednesday April 27
DARIUS JONES & MATTHEW SHIPP
Pianist Matthew Shipp is one of New York’s most talked–about talents, one who has “not only stretched the definitions of jazz, but also exponentially advanced his own ideas about it conceptually and technically.” (Thom Jurek, AllMusic.com). Alto saxophonist/composer Darius Jones “has the capacity for a proud, rafters–raising tone on alto saxophone, and as an improviser he’s fearless but disciplined.” (Nate Chinen, The New York Times). These two intrepid sonic explorers join forces for the first time on the expansive 13–part song cycle Cosmic Lieder, set for April release on AUM Fidelity. The duo will perform extensions and variations of the music on Cosmic Lieder, as well as wholly new compositions, tonight on our stage in a muchanticipated appearance.
"This engrossing union of pianist Matthew Shipp and alto saxophonist Darius Jones fascinates for its emotional and conceptual richness." - Kevin Le Gendre, BBC.com
Tickets: $20 - PURCHASE NOW
Thursday - Sunday April 28 - May 1
CHARLIE HUNTER DUO featuring BOBBY PREVITE (4/28), ADAM CRUZ (4/29), ERIC KALB (4/30), SHAWN PELTON (5/1)
From his seven–string instrument to album titles like Gentlemen, I Neglected To Inform You, You Will Not Be Getting Paid, Charlie Hunter has always “traveled to the beat of a different drum.” This week, the virtuoso guitarist will perform in a series of duos accompanied by four of the top percussionists on the contemporary scene. Bobby Previte moved to New York City in 1979, has since worked with everyone from John Medeski to William Shatner and “can break your heart with one cymbal crash.” (The Village Voice) A creative force on the international jazz scene for the last two decades, Adam Cruz “pairs flawless technique and a crystalline touch with a level of prophetic intuition that is awe-inspiring!” (Modern Drummer) With his mastery of a deep groove “pocket,” Eric Kalb has recorded with John Scofield and Melvin Sparks, among others. Millions of television viewers have heard Shawn Pelton’s powerhouse drumming with the “Saturday Night Live” band, in which he’s played a key role since 1992. Don’t miss this “drummer’s delight” weekend with Charlie Hunter at Jazz Standard.
Tickets: $25/$30 Friday & Saturday - PURCHASE NOW